Archive for June, 2014

Billy Bragg led a massed tribute to Tony Benn and the stage witnessed its first-ever crowdsurf. It was a vintage year in Glastonbury’s dedicated arena for discussion and dissent

White-hot debate may have raged about the booking of Metallica, but elsewhere at Glastonbury, there was equally passionate discussion focused on things that may be almost as important: politics, history, the good society all that stuff. Debate is one specialism of Billy Bragg’s long-established Left Field tent (and just to declare an interest: I chaired some of this year’s sessions), along with a brilliantly diverse range of music, and more. These were some of the highlights.

It’s a wet weekday night in Brussels. Blacked-out cars are criss-crossing the city as European leaders gather for what amounts to a post-election crisis summit. Nigel Farage will soon be in town, to meet the Italian comedian-turned-politician Beppe Grillo to discuss what news reports call "a potential alliance of Eurosceptic parties in the European parliament". The newspapers that litter the city’s Eurostar terminal are full of angst about the pan-European triumph of parties of the populist right (and left), and another crisis for an already troubled EU.

At the 1,800-capacity Ancienne Belgique, meanwhile, something quite remarkable is afoot: five musicians, on a stage bedecked with two Welsh flags, performing a song so at odds with the political moment that it sounds like a work of consummate bravery.

Gruff Rhys traces an American journey taken by one of his relatives in a book that brims with verve and fascination

The Welsh band Super Furry Animals released their first single in 1996, when the surrounding culture was dominated by so-called Britpop. The song on its A-side was titled "Hometown Unicorn", and by way of indicating that its creators had slightly more adventurous things in mind, it mentioned Franck Fontaine, a Parisian suburbanite who claimed to have been abducted by aliens in 1979.

Over the next 14 years, the group’s subsequent work contained other interesting reference points: among them, the parents of Albert Einstein, the meteorological phenomenon El Niño, ice hockey and Valentine Strasser, who in 1992 became the world’s youngest head of state, when a military junta seized power in Sierra Leone. Super Furry Animals have been on hiatus since 2010, and remain a too often overlooked example of how to make music that brims with verve and fascination, something due in large part to the boundless curiosity of their chief creative force, Gruff Rhys. In 2008, under the auspices of a project called Neon Neon, Rhys stepped away from the group to create a concept album about the fallen automobile entrepreneur John DeLorean: one cannot imagine anything similar being created by, say, a member of Mumford & Sons.

The party’s senior figures have done little in the past four years to indicate an understanding of the problems besetting its politics

Depending who you listen to, Labour has an Ed Miliband problem, an issue with its "anti-business" attitude, a shortage of what the venerable former Labour attack dog Damian McBride calls "fighters", or some combination of all these difficulties and more. But if action is taken, up to and including the post-election exit of the leader, the party will sooner or later be back in a world of surging confidence and thumping election victories, with its people striding around Whitehall like kings and queens. All will be well in the world, with Labour restored to glory: cue Things Can Only Get Better, and a shower of ticker tape.

And so to cold reality, and issues that run much deeper than any of those suggested by the political noise. With the age of either main party grabbing in excess of 40% of the vote clearly over, if the party’s poll rating is currently in the early- to mid-30s that may be as good as it gets. We should also wave goodbye to the notion of politicians as lever-pulling strongmen, and some magic formula whereby leaders might affect à la Blair or Thatcher to speak for a majority of the country. It would take a book or two to satisfactorily explain why, but the basics are simple enough: the demise of organised capitalism, the fragmented, atomised economy that took its place, the way that technology feeds a culture of scepticism, and the resulting disappearance of the kind of voter who goes to the polling station feeling a compelling sense of party loyalty.

Metallica headline at Glastonbury next weekend, but their testosterone-driven act now looks absurd all the more so when innovators such as California’s Warpaint share the bill

The day I meet them, Warpaint are in London. The next day it’s Manchester. Then there’s an appearance in Mexico City, and a festival in Tennessee, after which they will bounce through Louisville, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and New York. Then comes Glastonbury, followed by outdoor events in Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Poland (more of which in a moment), and more.

When the band toured the world to promote their first album, The Fool, the work spread itself over a mind-boggling two and a half years, and their brutal schedule took its inevitable toll. Now, guitarist, singer and multi-instrumentalist Theresa Wayman makes a point of finding yoga classes in whichever city she finds herself. Drummer Stella Mozgawa talks about the imperative to be "really respectful of each other. Take your space, and do what you need to do. If you need to go for a run or watch a movie and be alone in the dark, you have to do that."